Infineon fosters the adoption of its innovative multilevel Class D audio amplifier technology through an ecosystem of associated partners

Long-lasting music playback performance that comes in compact, cost-effective, and power-efficient designs, is indispensable, especially for battery-powered applications. Infineon Technologies recently introduced its latest generation of MERUS™ multilevel Class D audio amplifiers. Several ecosystem partners of Infineon are now ready to support interested customers with their design-in efforts. Partnering with the experts, the company aims to boost the adoption of the new and innovative technology. Infineon’s Class D audio amplifiers enable high-fidelity sound playback with a unique Class D modulation of up to 5 different output voltage levels.

“The ability to drive 2 x 37 W at full power, while supporting inductor-less, low EMI outputs and an idle power level at one-tenth of competitive products, offers OEM’s and ODM’s unique benefits,” said Dafydd Roche, Director Marketing of Class-D Audio at Infineon. “These benefits include smaller form factor products and lower system costs by removing big, bulky inductors and shielding and by lowering battery capacity for the same playback hours. Our ecosystem partners complement the system solutions we can offer. With their decades of audio expertise, they are a unique addition to design-in and product support of our MERUS amplifier generations, enabling customers a faster time-to-market.”

The new MERUS multilevel switching technology makes audio sounds better while consuming only one-tenth of the idle power of traditional Class D amplifiers. Multilevel Class D amplifiers need only ferrite beads instead of big inductors for the output low-pass-filter circuity, significantly reducing the PCB space and additional cost of inductors. Two major associated partners of Infineon, currently developing unique audio solutions based on the MERUS Class D audio amplifiers, are Eleven Engineering and Volumio in the Global and EMEA business regions, respectively.

Eleven Engineering, the creator of the cutting-edge wireless audio standard SKAA, supports customers with high-quality audio designs in key audio markets such as home theatre, whole home, portable audio, and outdoor. “Infineon’s Class-D amplifier topology significantly increases the battery life of SKAA wireless-enabled products, making them more desirable to customers,” said John Sobota, CEO, Director and Founder of Eleven Engineering. “This benefit is pretty obvious. What’s less obvious is the cost impact of using Infineon amplification. When you can eliminate costly items from the bill of materials, such as output inductors, chassis boxes, and dedicated heat sinks, it makes our joint offerings fantastically attractive.”

Volumio has inspired audio enthusiasts with products such as the Volumio Primo, Rivo, or Integro, the latter of which has been awarded the best Streamer\Amplifier of the year award by the Stereo&Video magazine. Volumio’s products aim to provide the best music experience possible and make it available to everyone seamlessly and conveniently. “We have chosen to design our Integro integrated streaming amplifier around the MERUS multilevel Class D audio technology because it offers the best synthesis of sound quality, efficiency, and power,” said Michelangelo Guarise, Founder and CEO of Volumio. “Our customers just love that such a compact design can deliver a powerful and crisp musical presentation, and this has been possible thanks to the MERUS platform.”

About Eleven Engineering

Eleven Engineering is the creator of the SKAA® standard for wireless audio, which is being adopted broadly, especially by makers of battery-operated speakers who need reliable wireless audio networking to work in all environments, including outdoors. Infineon’s MERUS audio amplifier technology leads the industry in eliminating energy waste in speakers. MERUS extracts the longest possible battery life while delivering pristine audio quality at high SPLs. The Eleven / Infineon partnership yields a magical formula that contemporary speaker makers are leveraging to concurrently lead their markets in both wireless networking and battery-operated performance. Eleven’s off-the-shelf motherboards, Strawberry and Saskatoon, featuring a seamless marriage of SKAA and MERUS silicon on field-proven PCBAs, let customers skip electronics R&D altogether and jump immediately into the market. More information about Eleven Engineering is available at www.elevenengineering.com/.

About Volumio

Volumio provides an audiophile music player designed for high-quality music playback, currently used by over 500,000 users worldwide. It runs on devices such as Micro-Computers and is controlled with any device with a browser. It has an intuitive UI that allows the integration of different music formats and services. Volumio offers the complete experience with the Primo, a music player and streamer with an impressive set of input and output capabilities. Additionally, Volumio OEM provides a tailored audio system to companies based on the Volumio software and is trusted by 30 OEM partners. More information about Volumio is available at www.volumio.com.